Album Review: This Broken Beat – Far From Home

December 8, 2021

Julio Perez, lead singer of This Broken Beat has the kind of pop-rock cross-over voice that would make Adam Levine turn his chair around. Perez’ tenor shows clear Ed Sheeran influences, and with such an asset at the heart of their sound, it’s no wonder This Broken Beat shot for the stars on Far From Home.

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Break It To Make It: Okey Dokey Hits The Coast

December 7, 2021

It’s 1 am in San Antonio, Texas and Aaron Martin wants to give you a hug.

He’s the singer and co-founder of Okey Dokey and why wouldn’t he give you a squeeze? You are, after all, a part of Okey Dokey too.

“It’s everything you’d want after two years of, you know, the absence,” Martin tells BandWagon of their current tour. He’s been excited to finally practice Okey Dokey’s mission statement with the people who make the live music experience what it is to him: pretty much everyone who’s not in the band.

“The whole statement is kind of anti-separation,” Martin says. “Bands aren’t just a band. It’s everyone involved.”

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The Motet: Colorado Sound Featured Artist, October 2021

October 12, 2021

A motet, in Western classical music, is a composition, diverse in form and style, dating all the way back to medieval times; a polyphonic form described by scholars as “a piece of music in several parts.”

Today, we might call such a conglomeration simply … a jam. Maybe that’s where the head of drummer Dave Watts was in 1998 when he founded what would become one of Colorado’s (and the world’s) most well-loved live bands: The Motet.

Always laying on a fresh coat of funk, rock, soul and jazz, the band is known for surprising their die-hard audiences with top-tier special guests, but have other tricks, and indeed treats, up their sleeves too, especially for Halloween.

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Album Review: Covenhoven – IV

October 8, 2021

For Coloradans, the name Covenhoven has become synonymous with intimate and heartfelt yet cinematic and powerful folk music. Over the course of three previous full length albums, Joel Van Horne, the stalwart man behind the timidly convicted voice around which the music of Covenhoven swirls, has unflappably delivered expertly crafted, immersive music which seems to speak directly from his heart into our ears.

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Lady Denim: Colorado Sound Spotlight Artist, September 2021

September 8, 2021

“We were desperately trying to stay optimistic,” Lady Denim’s lead vocalist Nick Lundeen tells BandWagon, “which – to be honest, was a lot easier said than done.”

On September 10, Fort Collins indie-pop quartet Lady Denim release “Loosely Held Hands” with plans to rock the block at Downtown Greeley’s Block Party festival that night in celebration of the EP’s release.

“Loosely Held Hands is about holding on to something during tough circumstances,” Lundeen says. “We became a lot more dependent on one another and the songwriting became more fluid.”

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Album Review: The Cuddies – Fix It Myself

September 4, 2021

Greeley’s jazz-leaning (Hannah &) The Cuddies put on a rock show, but shine in moments of intimacy on their full-length debut Fix It Myself, a gloss-rock review via theatrical means. The band flexes their arrangement chops with big horns and fast guitars, offering tricky rhythms in the vocal. Akin to female-fronted bands like Letters to Cleo or the Cardigans, the Cuddies cleverly twist the unexpected into four-on-the-floor fun.

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Buckle Up: FoCoMX Drive and Jive Continues Despite BoHo NoGo

August 7, 2021

Taking place on Sundays this month at the historic Holiday Twin Drive-In, FoCoMX: Drive and Jive continued its live offerings last month with further programming into August and beyond. Reimagining the series to feature a mix of established veteran Colorado acts as well as “discovery” artists from the region, Drive and Jive aims to build engaged audiences and more.

In light of yesterday’s news that the Bohemian Foundation’s recently announced Bohemian Light Music Festival is now in fact cancelled due to COVID precautions, the Drive and Jive series offers a live music format which has proved to function well under pandemic restrictions.

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